May 6th, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
CiUn is an acronym for Consumer Information Undressed Network. Our journey began many years ago when I proudly purchased one of the very first Apple Computers at the first computer store in King County, Washington. I was to be a real estate agent in a few years.
That is an interesting sign perhaps. I say that because real estate agents in the most part are not techies. I was not, and as a result could only use my new computer to play a game called break out, or something like that. My store promised me some day programs would be created so I the non programmer could use my new game, uh computer.
The first program was a check book program, oh that was a joy.
Now lets fast forward to now. Technology is incredible. Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and the boys have mastered search. A young stud named Matt has invented WordPress and the Real Estate Industry has guys and gals like you and I. Oh, my children that saw the computer figured out how to program it or marry someone who does.
You and I? Yes, because I am writing this and you are reading it. We are the types that have the vision of what can be done. While some of the younger generation used genius and develop technology, others of all generations (you and I) fell in love with how real estate and technology can be used together.
This network of blogs bring the most effective internet application (local real estate blogs) with a network of agents. This network of agents, this company CiUn combine their resources to be a blog network by agents for agents. This is a network of agents working for agents with technology brains supporting us. It is more than a blog.
Pick a neighborhood and join in. You will be glad you did.
May 6th, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
I posted two articles and then went back on google an hour later to see where they would be on a search. I typed in ‘Burien coffee’ and burienundressed was on the 2nd page. I typed in Burien History and it was on the first page. That’s amazing, but I know you already know that.
Danita Jolly
RE/MAX Team One
PS: These are Danitas first two articles.
May 4th, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
It is about time to pack it in for the week and I wanted to share a couple of important things with you. In getting to know each other Jim Warner of the ROCS Alliance suggested I read a couple of books by Jim Collins – Built To Last and Good To Great. This has been a good suggestion, which I pass along to you. BTW this wasn’t the first time someone suggested that to me, but was the time it created the action.
This has been good for Kathleen and me to read together.
From todays reading I felt I inspired to pass this along to you: Jim and I, and even some of you and I have discussed the fall out that is going on in Real Estate – agents being forced to leave the business.
Some will leave our business by necessity and by necessity some need to leave.
From Good To Great I leave you this thought and a strategy:
The Good-To-Great Companies focus on three core concepts: (Picture yourself as a mini company – and at the same time consider what I think we are focused on at CiUn Inc.)
1- What are you deeply passionate about?
2- What can you be the best in the world at?
3- What drives your economic engine?
Jim Collins calls The Three Circles of The Hedgehog Concept.
All three are required for a successful good to great company, or mini company. The economic engine is driving many out of our business, many that have passion and are great technicians in our industry – even love it.
Jim Warner points out that our business at CiUn is a way for agents suffering economically to still stay in the business. I will let him address his vision once you are introduced to ROCS officially.
But for CiUN Inc in the undressed network, how about us? That is what this message is about.
About # 1 Passion: Our kids, at least a few of them, are amazed at our perserverance (passion) – think we are nuts – or are on board with our passion for this network. We have a mortgage company and a real estate practice that are taking second place in our hearts to “blogs???”. I tell the service station attend we work 24/6. We love what we are doing here.
About # 2: Being The Best We are not the best, but we are good. Jim tells me Good is the Enemy of Great. Jim Collins proposes that Great Companies focus on what they can “potentially” do better than anyone else. I believe that is us, and part of that is because of you our network. Going it alone, in my opinion, is silly. Real Estate is made up of loan wolf experts – this network is counter to that. The surveys we are receiving back are going to be a benefit to all of us, with some critical and some positive feedback we need and you can benefit by. We believe the brand, the network, the technology, the support, and the focus we have can make this project great. As fast as we can, we will invest in even more for you and the network.
About # 3: A successful economic engine. We have covered our basic overhead because of our real estate practice and our mortgage business. We committed in the beginning to a term common to the internet – bootstrap. Having witnessed 2 million dollars, to a previous dotcom adventure, and seeing it not be enough and watching several others waste millions and millions more than that – we signed on to the bootstrap concept for CiUn Inc. Some really good companies started this way: Flickr, DIGG, and Google for example: Flickr sold to Yahoo for a few million and the other two eventually took on investors, but they bootstrapped until proven.
We are now positive cash flow only because we don’t take salaries. Our economic engine, to be beyond bootstrap needs us to reach 200 monthly clients. We are gearing up to get that, ROCS is gearing up to help us do that. Many of you are helping us do that. With the great ideas coming in from about 20 of us can you image the power of 200? But financially that puts CiUn in a place it can start adding things more aggressively that benefit us all.
In a nutshell: I believe we can become a great company. We appreciate your pioneering this with us. We will be ever looking to how we can make sure this is a great company and is a great tool for you.
Thanks for participating, for your input, and for all have done and will do to help us grow.
Larry Cragun
May 2nd, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
1- It is a fact: The more you write the more topics and key words you will naturally be found on. Also, Google moves your articles forward as you write more. Jeniffer Allan started a month ago. She responded ok to one of my emails encouraging you to write almost daily. Yes, she kicked in gear and took our advice. Her area, Northwest Denver, is an area known to Denverites. I just did a quick check and she has moved Northwest Denver Undressed to the front page of Google on some pretty important short tail search terms: northwest Denver real estate, northwest denver houses for sale, northwest denver homes, northwest denver home prices. This is not to mention the long tail searches like “5280 safe list” which she published this morning and is in number one position on the first page of google this morning.
Thanks for those who have provided the feedback. It is important. One piece of feedback that is important is that we need to show you some effective blogging ideas so it doesn’t take too much of your time: Thank again for that. So………………….
2- Next week: Wednesday May 7, and for sure 2008 at 1PM PDT there is a ROCS sponsored on line class for those with marketing mature sights. To be classified as marketing mature your site must have at least 10 articles, 2 local links, and your community description posted in some format. Again, we need 24 hour notice to make sure the class has attendees and not too many attendees.
Things are rolling, more alliances and updates coming….. lar
May 2nd, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
WOW - I just googled myself and NW Denver and you’re right - I’m WAY up there and the 5280 Safe Places IS at number one - I just posted that a few hours ago!!!
Yowsa!!! I’m inspired.
J
May 1st, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
RE: RealEstateUndressed.com
This site is nationally recognized. Blogged.com has ranked it number 12, tied with Zillow in its rankings. This is an important honor. The Gosselin list names it as one of the 10 most influential real estate blogs. MySpace news selected it as one of the dozen it gathers and posts on its real estate news section. It has a page rank 5 Google ranking.
It is now your tool for traffic. It is now easy for me to follow your articles, as they all appear on neighborhoodsUndressed.com. Because of that I am picking several articles per week and posting them on real estate undressed. This helps us and you. It helps me with quick content. Not bad as I write on 4 blogs now. It also helps you by driving traffic and giving you a link from a page rank 5 site. I am looking for more and more ways of expanding the traffic to real estate undressed, and then to you.
The examples of how I have been doing this: 1- An article that I believe is interesting 2- A great photo 3- Weekly I take 4 random undressed articles off of neighborhoodsUndressed and post them on realestateundressed.com 4- Is not yet official: That is if you would like to post an article on real estate undressed, as the author, you may now do that. I experimented with a couple of mortgage articles from Las Vegas and like it.
1- http://realestateundressed.com/2008/04/30/northwest-denver-downzoned-how-do-i-feel-about-it/
2- http://realestateundressed.com/2008/04/29/a-great-photo-from-teresa-boardman/
3- http://realestateundressed.com/2008/04/23/the-latest-posts-from-the-undressed-network/
4- http://realestateundressed.com/2008/02/07/mark-clawson-reverse-mortgage-advisor-works-with-the-company-that-provide-this-article/
Thanks for participating
Larry and Kathleen
April 30th, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
Well, not Candid Camera…. But when you post an article it ends up on NeighborhoodsUndressed.com. Below is a copy of what is there now. The last 20 articles appear in order beginning with most recent. It can take an hour or so to feed over there.
A tip: Figure out if there is a popular local major blog (such as a TV Channel or newspaper) look for an opportunity to have them feed yours. We have several blogs that have that happening. Lar
New to the Blog world - Hello~ my name is Lisa Corelli and I’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest since I was a small child. I currently live in Puyallup WA. and have been here in Pierce County since 1999. In 2000 I set out
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The Things I Learned At Arbor Day, the Birds and the Bears and the Bees - Issaquah Highlands celebrated Arbor Day last Saturday April 26th. Many people worked very hard to bring the event to pass. If you don’t know what Arbor Day is, it is a day to rejoice in trees,
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Great Gig Harbor Photos - I’ve posted several photos of Gig Harbor in the past several months, including many of these. I don’t think you can ever get enough of the beautiful Gig Harbor photographs, so here are some of
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Gig Harbor’s best Landscaper/Excavator (I think) - I think I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m not a super handy guy. I drive a big truck to try and make myself feel tough, but really I’m not. I own a few tools, some I even know their
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Nordstrom Store at the Tacoma Mall - Nordstrom is building a brand new store next to their current location at the Tacoma Mall. It will be bigger and more updated then their current store, which is still open while the new one is under
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Northwest Denver Downzoned! How do I feel about it? - As you may have heard, the Denver City Council had a marathon session on Monday night – rumor has it that it finally broke up at 3am! I say “rumor” because I gave up around 9pm – I’m a
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Free cone today at Gig Harbor’s new Ben and Jerry’s! - Sorry it’s last minute, but I didn’t hear about this until just recently. Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream shops across the nation are giving away free ice cream cones today, and asking for
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Tips for Selecting an Agent or Realtor - Is your agent a residential expert? How well does the agent know the neighborhoods? To fill the specific residential needs of home buyers and sellers, I would recommend selecting an agent that is familiar
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This is Bear Country - I am told a couple of our nearby neighbors are joining me in an interview to be published in the June Issue of Seattle Magazine. We have posted a few articles on http://IssaquahUndressed.com/ and
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Spyder Lake Winery - Peach is in - Spring is here and the wine is beginning to flow. A couple of weeks ago the winery bottled its batch of Peach wine for the season. I was lucky enough to know the day it was happening and got to taste it
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Fortune Telling & Real Estate - Most of us have heard of the 16th Century Pharmacist/seer Nostradamus who has been credited with the prediction of wars, Hitler, natural disasters, etc.. Unfortunately (or fortunately) he didn’t
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Puyallup, Construction at 136th Street Nears Completion! - 122nd Ave. at 136th St., South Hill, Puyallup, Wa. The intersection at 136th St and 122nd Ave. E. is nearly complete. We have all had a love/hate relationship with this corner. We love it because it means
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In Honor Of Taj and Almos’ - Taj and Almos’ are the awesome young Tigers at the Issaquah Cougar Mountain Zoo. If you haven’t seen them,it’s a
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Tacoma Dome - Here is a picture of the Tacoma Dome just off of the freeway as you enter
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What Are Homes In Issaquah Highlands Really Selling For? - We are posting the closed homes, what they sold for vs what the lising price was on a map for your convenience. We find that this method is easier than reading a spreadsheet. We use a different icon for
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Is The Sunny Weather Getting You Down? - Well do I have good news for you then. We took these photos 2 days ago at nearby Snoqualmie Pass. Eat you hearts out snow birds. Tags:
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Good to tour Gig Harbor again - It’s interesting when you live in an area how easy it is to forget what makes it special. You tend to get into your little routine, travelling the same routes, doing the same things, seeing the same
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Puyallup River - Puyallup River, Downtown Puyallup, Wa. Puyallup River Walking Trail, downtown Puyallup, Wa. This is the Puyallup River at the little park on East Main. We have a walking path there now and a place to get
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Port Orchard Home Sales Excelling - Each week I track the real estate market in Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, and the Key Peninsula. I like to look at how many homes were listed for sale, and how many homes received acceptable offers and are
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Kenmore Open Houses 4/26-4/27 - Here are the published open houses in the City of Kenmore, WA for this weekend. Simply click on the picture and you’ll be taken to a detaled map that provides you with some basic information about
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April 30th, 2008
Posted by Larry Cragun
Last year we attributed over 4 million in transactions and listings to our blog efforts. This is while running a mortgage company and building the blog network. Not all were leads that came in by phone call, some by using the blog as a conversation piece, and from off the brochure we produced. You are sitting on a gold mine. Are you using it?
Sadly, we wasted many leads that checked into our premium search. I recently did a follow up phone call to about a dozen of them and found they had been expecting me to contact them and didn’t wait for me, they went elsewhere. As your blog gets to the point it is getting several visitors a day, an advanced search is recommended. We use HomeQuest, a great tool, which is only available in about 6 markets.
To both help the network and not waste leads, Kathleen and I have aligned ourselves with the DiBello Group. It has immediate benefits to us and potential benefits for you directly, if you desire. To us, they will be managing all of our buyers. We will be promoting our real estate practice in a way there will be a seamless transition from our blogs to the DiBello staff.
The DiBello Group, Sam and Renee founders, have had a TV Show they are considering reviving. It could be syndicated in your market. They also have an outstanding Home Buyers class. It is both on line and in classes. In our market they have been the competition to copy, as many have. Yet even with the market as it is, they have several classes running in our market each week.
The online classes are designed to convert the student to use the DiBellos. We are working with them to modify the classes to be used as a lead generator for you if you desire. Unlike a “lead” per se – the on line system notifies Sam, who is the teacher on line, that they are on the fourth lesson. He then calls and makes sure they are ready and willing to sign a buyers agency agreement. That is where you would get involved. You would be working with people qualified and committed.
You can get a sample of the classes by clicking this link and entering the SEMINARS section:
http://www.thedibellogroup.com/index.html?PHPSESSID=416a992f958e97d4d94fbbb3a541002a
The immediate benefit of this arrangement is more of my time spent on the undressed network. The seminars we are working on for you. You might let me know if you are interested.
February 1st, 2007
Posted by Larry Cragun
This will be a work in process post. Rather than gather all the resouces that support agent blogging I will post a few and as I come across other points and links I will add them.
Some of you may already have the vision.
1- Agents that blog can provide information about their knowedge of Real Estate, their local market, and themselves that will invite online visitors to select them as their agent.
2- Blogs have better search engine results than a website.
3- Blogs that are focused on providing meaningful local content can link their agent website. This offers visitors the best of both worlds: A blog website that doesn’t overdo that you are a great agent, with a link to your website which is your sales piece. The blog is a way to drive people to your website.
4- The number one reason real estate sites are visited is to look at the MLS listings. Your blog can lead the customer to this service from you the agent. By not requiring registration for searches you welcome the client on their terms, which at first is always anonymous. Through the combination of your blog and your website services you build loyalty. If you respond to an inquiry promptly, the customer will usually select you as they have become your silent client.
Successful Agents are sharing their stories and opinions. Man if these don’t sell you, you are probably wishing you could go back to the days of no internet, only having listing books. Come back often as I will be looking for more testimonials, hints, and messages. Lar
TESTIMONIALS AND LINKS:
From A Top agent in Minnesota Teresa Boardman written for her friends blog, . Here is her blog
